(NewsNation) — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced an outage of its computer system called the Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, and as a result thousands of flights were delayed or canceled across the U.S. on Wednesday.
Capt. Laura Einsetler, a commercial airline pilot, told NewsNation’s “Rush Hour” that pilots are “just as frustrated” as passengers with the delays.
The main criticism surrounding the incident was that the computer system was outdated.
Einsetler reminded passengers that the pandemic played a significant role in the shutdown.
“The aviation industry was really obliterated. So those plans that we originally had to create these more updated, current systems were just put on hold for literally survival of the industry. So now we’re playing catch-up. We’re happy everyone’s back flying with us, just to ask for you to be a little patient as we’re upgrading, updating and bringing you to where you need to go safely.”